Sex workers march for rights and Aids awareness in Kolkata – in pictures

Thousands of sex workers marched through the streets of Kolkata, India, with balloons and red umbrellas to demand the decriminalisation of sex work and prostitution worldwide, raise Aids awareness and protest against their exclusion because of visa restrictions from the International Aids Conference taking place in Washington DC this week

An estimated 5,000 sex workers and activists from across India and from more than 40 countries marched shoulder-to-shoulder through Kolkata. The march began in Sonagachi, or 'Golden Tree', in north Kolkata. Sonagachi is one of the oldest red-light districts in the city and one of the biggest in Asia

The rally was part of a week-long international Aids conference organised to protest against the US government's travel restrictions on sex workers wanting to attend an Aids conference in Washington. The words on umbrella say 'Sex workers have lust … for their rights!'

The red umbrella is a key symbol for the international sex workers' rights movement, representing protection from the rain as they work on the streets and demands for protection from discrimination and violence

'Almost everywhere in the world sex work is targeted as a crime but it still exists,' says Ariane, a sex worker from Germany. 'Prohibition makes people invisible, harder to reach, harder to support. Sex work for me means independence and also freedom – I have time to care for my partner and do political work.' Ariane started in a brothel but now works independently. 'People who deny our self-determination and see us as victims deny our ability and the reality that we make a choice every day. This is abusive behaviour, really'

‘We're here to show our solidarity with others in India,’ says Geetha (not pictured), a sex worker from Karnataka, in south-west India. 'We also want to learn from the groups in West Bengal, which has a longer history of organising. We've been disadvantaged by so many things, socially, economically. And we’re deprived of many welfare schemes,’ says Geetha. She has struggled to get some form of national ID, without which she has no access to welfare programmes

A local sex worker watches the rally. Hundreds of multi-storey brothels line Sonagachi's narrow streets studded with small shops and entries to alleyways. The Kolkata sex trade is mainly brothel-based, operating out of different red light districts. An estimated 11,000 sex workers operate out of Sonagachi. Although most live in the area, roughly 3,000 travel to the district from their homes, working as 'floating' sex workers

A demonstrator holds a sign from the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), a forum of 65,000 female, male and transgender sex workers in West Bengal. Founded in 1995, DMSC advocates for sex work to be recognised as work and for social and economic security for sex workers and their children. Durbar means unstoppable in Bengali

DMSC has pioneered projects that address structural issues that foster vulnerability. The projects combine condom promotion and distribution with project management, targeted information campaigns, and efforts to improve the conditions of sex workers and tackle violence. The UN special envoy for HIV and Aids in the Asia-Pacific region said the Sonagachi project, run by DMSC, is one of the most successful HIV prevention efforts and provided a model for India's national Aids strategy

'We are entertainers and we are labourers,' said Sapna Gayen (not pictured), from DMSC. 'We need our own trade unions. In the future, I believe there will be state trade unions [for sex workers] in each state of India'

Activists prepare to release balloons on the rally. Jaya, a sex workers' rights activist from Bangladesh, said sex workers fear a backlash from religious fundamentalists. 'During the month of Ramadan all the fundamentalists come together and in the name of religion threaten to evict us and deny us our rights'

'When you’re doing it, of course you see it as work. It buys your food, pays for school,' says Daisy Nakato (not pictured), from Uganda. 'If it was decriminalised, if one could choose to be a sex worker, in a safe environment, I think it would be a good job. What make it bad work are the laws and policies'

Indian sex workers watch the march, which ended on College Street, where cramped colourful bookstalls take over the pavement, forming one of the largest second-hand book markets in the world. Sex workers and activists gathered for a final rally to celebrate 20 years of the Sonagachi Project